1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for executing information processing, and more specifically, to processing of count information managed per section, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a system has been developed in which an information processing apparatus performing predetermined information processing transmits, to a host server, count information managed by the information processing apparatus, and the host server manages information about charging (billing) for the information processing apparatus in a centralized manner. The count information is transmitted per day or several hours via the Internet by utilizing SOAP/XML as one example of the Web technology.
The information processing apparatus used in such a system includes, e.g., a network-adapted printer or combined machine. Further, the information processing apparatus capable of managing the count information per section has the function of collecting and summing up charge information per section in an independent way. That type of system is expected to be more widely used in near future.
That type of system is disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-122533. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-122533 discloses a printing system in which a printing apparatus, a charging apparatus, and a server are connected to one another via a network. In the printing system, more specifically, the printing apparatus issues a request for acquiring print data using a data identifier to identify the print data. Further, the printing apparatus receives response data, including the print data, with respect to the request, prints the print data, and notifies the result of a printing process.
On the other hand, the charging apparatus receives the request for acquiring the print data from the printing apparatus and specifies a charging target user. When the charging target user is specified, the charging apparatus transfers the request to the server. Also, upon receiving the response data including the print data from the server, the charging apparatus transfers the response data to the printing apparatus, and then updates charge information when it receives the result of the printing process from the printing apparatus. The server receives the request from the charging apparatus, specifies the print data, and sends back the response data including the print data.
However, the system of managing the charge information per section or user is often configured such that count information managed by the information processing apparatus per section or user can be deleted at the discretion of an administrator. In such a case, a problem may occur during the process of management in that, if the count information per section or user is deleted at certain timing, the final count information having been deleted for some section or user is lost when the count information should be transmitted to the server.